GEOLOGICAL, GEOCHEMICAL AND GEOTHERMAL STUDIES ON THE

BARREN ISLAND VOLCANO, ANDAMAN SEA, INDIAN OCEAN

Mohammad Ayaz Alam

Abstract of Ph.D. Thesis
Located 135 km northeast of Port Blair in the Andaman Sea, Barren Island (12°16'40" N, 93°31'00"
E) is a small volcanic island in the Indian Ocean and a part of the Andaman and Nicobar chain of
islands. It is the only active volcano in the Indian Territory and belongs to the Myanmar-Andaman-
Sumatra-Java volcanic arc (Neogene Inner Volcanic Arc) extending from the extinct volcanoes of
Myanmar in the north to the active volcanoes of Sumatra and Java in the south. Oblique
convergence between the Indo-Australian plate and the Indo-Myanmar-Andaman-Sumatra block
has developed Andaman-Sumatra subduction regime, with an easterly dipping Benioff zone along
the western margin of this block. Prehistoric (Neogene?), historic and the present day volcanism in
this region are related to this. Barren Island has witnessed several volcanic eruptions during historic
time but the eruptions that led to the formation of this volcanic island occurred mainly during
prehistoric times. Prehistoric eruptions (PH) are represented by the caldera wall, which forms a
ridge all around the island, whereas the historic eruptions (H1, H2 and H3) are confined to the
central part of this caldera depression. Its volcanic evolution appears to be characterized by a
constructive phase with the piling up of lava flows and scoria deposits, followed by a sudden
collapse of the main cone. Deposits of a possible caldera-forming eruption have been recognized.
After a period of peri-calderic hydromagmatic activity, whose deposits presently mantle inner and
outer caldera walls, a new phase of intracalderic vulcanian activities took place. A prominent dyke
(PHD) in the SE inner side of the caldera wall has been recognized, which differs in chemical
composition significantly and is not a feeder to the flows. PH lava flows along the caldera wall are
dark gray to grayish white in colour and at places deep brown. They are largely phyric with
megacrysts and microphenocrysts of plagioclase, olivine (greenish but dark red or brown when
altered) and green pyroxene in fine grained grey to dark grey groundmass. Microscopically they
show megacrysts and microphenocrysts of plagioclase, olivine and Clinopyroxene. PH lava is
olivine basalt, where as the lavas of historic eruptions prior to 1991 (H1) are also Olivine Basalt but
significantly impoverished in MgO. The 1991 lava (H2) is olivine bearing basaltic andesite while
that erupted during 1994-95 (H3) is again olivine basalt similar to that erupted prior to 1991 (H1).
No distinct mineralogical evolution is delineated with progress of time. PH lavas can be classified
into pre-caldera and post-caldera. Based on the present work, the three cycles of eruption that are
identified do not geochronologically match with those suggested by previous workers. The first
cycle took place during prehistoric times, second cycle that began in historic times ended with 1991
eruption and the third cycle that commenced with 1994-95 eruption still continues. The lavas of
Sunda Arc vary from low-K tholeiites to High-K shoshonites, whereas Barren Island PH lavas are
low-K Tholeiite and low-K Basaltic Andesite. However, the Barren Island PH flows are quite
similar in major, minor and trace element chemistry and K/La, K/Nb, K/Rb, K/Ti ratios, C1
chondrite normalized trace element and REE patterns to the Quaternary low-K lavas of Sunda Arc.
Such a similarity between the Barren Island PH flows and low K lavas of Sunda Arc indicates that
Barren Island lavas might have evolved from a source similar to that of the Sunda Arc lavas during
Quaternary period. However, Barren Island lavas are not as much evolved, which can be explained
in terms of the presence of a shallow magmatic source, also evident by the seismic gap between 90
and 100 km depths in the Andaman Benioff zone. From La/Sm vs. Yb/Sm variation, it is evident
that the composition of Barren Island lavas not been influenced by the subducted sediments,
suggesting that the melting is taking place much above the mantle wedge, where the effect of
subducted sediments is absent. Influence of crustal contamination is not significant as evident from
87
Sr/86Sr ratios, 87Sr/86Sr - 144Nd/143Nd and La/Sm vs. Yb/Sm variations. In a nutshell, it can be
concluded that Barren Island lavas have shallow mantle origin and have not undergone any
significant contamination at all.